User blog comment:Lathagarr Stormgale of Tronn/Q&A/@comment-3094815-20101201185343/@comment-3143419-20101203155439

Matt 18:18 instructs us how to deal with an errant brother; if the Church cannot reason with him any more and he will not listen to their counsel they are to treat him as any other heathen and that decision, if made truthfully, will be upheld by God. The verse does not give authority to the Church to make any decree it wants to. No imperfect man can make edicts in the name of God because they would necessarily be founded upon faulty human reasoning. (Where in the Bible is authority given to the Pope to make such edicts?)